Explaining the Failure of an Obesity Intervention: Combining Bourdieu’s Symbolic Violence and the Foucault’s Microphysics of Power to Reconsider State Interventions

Wachs, Faye Linda; Chase, Laura Frances

doi:10.1123/ssj.30.2.111

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…al. 2008) and "the war on obesity" has been described as a form of "symbolic violence" directed at poor and non-white overweight people (Wachs and Chase 2013). While our participants with thin or average-sized bodies could purchase suits off-the-rack which only required minor adjustments, this was not possible for Winston who needed to purchase a custom suit.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suited for Success? Suits, Status, and Hybrid Masculinity

Barry

Weiner

2017

Men and Masculinities

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This article analyzes the sartorial biographies of four Canadian men to explore how the suit is understood and embodied in everyday life. Each of these men varied in their subject positionsbody shape, ethnicity, age and gender identity-which allowed us to look at the influence of men's intersectional identities on their relationship with their suits. The men in our research all understood the suit according to its most common representation in popular culture: a symbol of hegemonic masculinity. While they wore the suit to embody hegemonic masculine configurations of practice-power, status and rationality-most of these men were simultaneously marginalized by the gender hierarchy. We explain this disjuncture by using the concept of hybrid masculinity and illustrate that changes in the style of hegemonic masculinity leave its substance intact. Our findings expand thinking about hybrid masculinity by revealing the ways subordinated masculinities appropriate and reinforce hegemonic masculinity.Keywords: hybrid masculinity, embodiment, menswear, suits, sartorial biographies 2 IntroductionSociologist Tim Edwards (2011) tells us that "the suit is … the very essence of men's fashion and, indeed, of masculinity" (53). But what makes the suit masculine? And, moreover, what kinds of masculinities are expressed through the suit? Researchers on masculinity have tended to ignore clothing in their work, despite that fact that dress is one of the most immediate ways in which people read and express gender identity (Kaiser 2012). Fashion scholars have examined the shifting designs, practices and semiotics of suits at various historical and cultural moments. But they have often simply assumed that suits are masculine, without addressing how men's lived experiences of wearing them supports, challenges and nuances their claim. Research into the bodies that don suits is vital because dress, as Joanne Entwistle (2000) theorizes, is an embodied practice: it "operates on a phenomenal, moving body … that involves individual actions of attending to the body" (Entwistle 2000, 10-11). In this article, we explore the relationship between masculinity and suits through men's embodied experiences.We use the concept of embodiment to refer to how people's experiences of their body form the basis for their sense of self (Hewson 2013; Turner 1996). Specifically, we ask: what do men's embodied experiences of buying, choosing and wearing suits reveal about masculinity?To answer this question, we employed a sartorial biography methodology. Sartorial biographies combine life histories and object interviews to explore how clothing materializes identity (Woodward 2015, 1). Entering the wardrobes of four men, we examined their suits and interviewed them about these garments. This approach allowed us to uncover the ways in which the materiality of men's suits was intertwined with their embodied experiences of masculinity.What results is a rich description of the suit as material culture artefact through which overlapping subject positions are negotiated...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suited for Success? Suits, Status, and Hybrid Masculinity

Barry

Weiner

2017

Men and Masculinities

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“…(Foucault, 1972: 49, emphasis added) Whilst we acknowledge the debate about Bourdieu and Foucault (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992;Callewaert, 2006), we note the argument by Samuelsen and Steffen who suggest that "One of the strengths of the concepts and theories developed by these two thinkers has been to point out how the structures of societies influence and form individual lives, and how power can never be seen as a thing in itself, but always as a relational phenomenon working on all levels of social interaction" (2004:3). This strength is evident in recent work that has drawn on Foucault's microphysics of power and Bourdieu's work with capital (Wachs & Chase, 2013). In this spirit we draw on Ball's (2006) appeal to find new and imaginative ways of making theory work for the problems we encounter.…”

Section: Shifting the Blamementioning

confidence: 94%

Shifting the blame in higher education – social inclusion and deficit discourses

O’Shea

Lysaght

Roberts

et al. 2015

Higher Education Research & Development

111

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The principles of social inclusion have been embraced by institutions across the higher education sector but their translation into practice through pedagogy is not readily apparent. This paper examines perceptions of social inclusion and inclusive pedagogies held by academic staff at an Australian university. Of specific interest were the perceptions of teaching staff with regard to diverse student populations, particularly students from low socio-economic (LSES) backgrounds, given the institution's reasonably high proportion of LSES student enrolment (14%). A mixed-method approach was utilised: (i) in-depth interviews with a representative sample of academic staff and (ii) an online survey targeting all academic staff across the institution. The results point to the dual responsibilities of students and institutions in enacting inclusivity in order to move beyond reductive standpoints that simply apportion blame.

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“…Previous research has emphasised that middleclass adolescents comply with dominant health discourses in the pursuit of moral behaviour and a functional body (Wachs & Chase, 2013). The girls' perspectives that other individuals are accountable for their own health arguably reinforced the girls' own presentation of the self as responsible bio-citizens.…”

Section: 'Healthy' and Self-responsible Bio-citizensmentioning

confidence: 99%